Fringe Episode 2 – Night of Desirable Objects
“Night of Desirable Objects” (Fringe Episode 3), starts out with a construction worker who, while collecting his gear, sees an odd blue hand sticking out of the ground. When he touches the hand he’s completely sucked underground where he desperately tries to get away from a creature that appears to be down there.
Switch to Agent Olivia Dunham being checked out of the hospital, banged up and limping, but fully functional. And there, watching her in the parking lot, is her good friend Agent Charlie Francis. But, the look on his face is not very friendly. What’s up with that? Oh, that’s right, The Shifter has assumed Charlie’s identity and Olivia has no clue that her assassin is now hiding in her good friend’s body.
The Fringe Team (Peter, Olivia and Walter) travel to Pennsylvania to investigate a series of disappearances that no one can explain. Peter hopes it can provide insight to help Olivia unravel her own missing time. The team appears on-the-scene in a corn field talking to the local sheriff who is a bit put off by Walter’s weird antics. Oddly enough, while arguing with the locals over jurisdiction, Olivia is distracted by super-sensitive hearing that allows her to know the exact location of a fly in the room.
Could she be gaining superpowers after her trip to the parallel universe?
Back at the lab, Walter, the Fringe Team “mad scientist”, identifies the substance gathered in the Pennsylvania corn field as a paralytic substance – which causes him to immediately hypothesize that the killer is a mutant human – good old Walter, no garden variety serial killer for him. At the same time, Peter and Olivia locate a person named Andre Hughes, a retired doctor who keeps showing up at all of the disappearance sites. When they arrive at his house a very dirty Mr. Hughes comes up behind them with a shovel in his hand and his Wellington’s covered in mud. Mr. Hughes attempts to explain away his muddy appearance by complaining about water well problems and then invites them in. Once inside, Olivia’s super-hearing kicks in again and she’s sure someone in the house is hiding from them; she sneaks upstairs to have a look. She finds that Hughes has an impressively equipped lab in his home.
Olivia gets a visit from Fringe Agent Nina Sharp who says she is concerned for Olivia after the traumatic experience she’s been through. She explains that the mental impacts can be far worse than the physical. Nina refers Olivia to someone named “Sam Weiss”. Olivia declines the offer but takes the contact info. anyway.
After they interrogate the muddy Mr. Hughes we discover he lost his wife and son some time ago. Olivia and Peter decide to take him in for questioning. You initially start feeling sorry for the guy but when he refuses to give the Fringe Team a blood sample you begin wondering what he’s trying to hide.
Meanwhile the Fringe Team proceed to get an exhumation order for his dead wife and child.
Want to guess what they find?
They find an empty casket for the child; there’s a hole in the casket which looks like something chewed its way out. Mr. Hughes has a lot to explain; unfortunately The Fringe Team will get nothing further from him though – he hung himself in his cell; guess he knew what they were going to find.
Walter autopsies Mrs. Hughes and finds that she could not have possibly given birth to a child based on a pre-existing medical condition. Yet evidence shows that she did indeed have a baby.
But not just any baby.
The DNA analysis indicates that the baby was a mutant – created by Mr. Hughes for a wife who couldn’t have a baby naturally. Peter and Olivia return to the Hughes house because they believe the mutant child may still be alive. While under the house they discover half-eaten decomposing bodies. They find the monster and launch an attack. They’re able to defeat him (or it) but goodness, that creature is scary looking.
The show ends with Olivia’s super-hearing becoming out of control as she tries to relax in the tub. Knowing that this isn’t something she’s just imagining, she seeks out a man who’s the proprietor of a bowling alley. Olivia thinks he might know something about what happened to her in the parallel universe and might be able to explain her new powers. It looks like another unique character has been added to the mix . . . looking forward to the next episode of Fringe!
See: Fringe Episode 3 Review – Fracture
Fringe Episode 1 Review – A New Day in the Old Town (Season Premiere)
